...but never quite leaving the ground.

Grounded: November 2011 Archives

Version 2.0 is complete. Major enhancements from version 1.0 are a new, bigger, stronger bridge and y-axis. These enable a larger more powerful spin saw to be used rather than a mini rotary tool.

The electronics are also a slight upgrade - home made stepper drivers using PIC16F716 chips drive the X and Y axis (Z is still driven by a driver from Sparkfun). The power supply for all 3 steppers is 12V from a PC power supply. A 24V 14A power supply is on its way for the next upgrade.

Other upgrades in the works are homing switches and remote power for the spindle / spin saw / tool.

The CNC requires a bunch of aligning and also a better table / sacrifice board to make it cut square, but over all I'm impressed. Here's a clip of it running (taken by my friend who is responsible for all the good looking wood work - the hack jobs are mine).